Great Rumour! Nikon 400mm f/5.6 SW IS lens

Here is a great rumour to sink your teeth into.

<p>

A buddy whose neighbor works at Nikon's office in So. Callifornia (don't you love that connection?) says that the reason Nikon has not replaced its aging 400mm f/5.6 lens is that it is working on a 400mm f/5.6 Silent Wave Image Stabilized version of this lens. Sometime before 2001!

You need to share this info. with the Nikon-Digest crew too. This

kind of information will really get the juices flowin' over there!

And I was just right before going out and getting that third party AF

400/5.6. Now I'm forced to wait a little longer. Thanks for the

rumour.

Interesting, but judging from the prices of the new AF-S zooms,

I think I will never buy an AF-S lens. I was wondering (in a deleted

mail in photo.net) whether anybody knows whether the Nikon

AF-S technology is generally expensive, such that it is impossible

for Nikon for offer AF-S technology for competitive prices??

A 400/5.6 which is nearly as expensive as a 300/2.8 is probably

not very interesting.

I am not sure I would not go out and purchase another brand's 400mm

lens because of this rumour for several reasons. First, it is just

that, a rumour. Granted it makes sense in view of the current

situtaion in Nikon's lens lineup, but there is not official word.

Also, the predicted arrival time is about 2001! That's quite

a wait especially if the rumour tunrs out to be false. Second, the

price of this lense will undoubtedly be much higher than a 400mm by

Sigma, Tamron or Tokina. I notice that Tokina's 400mm f/5.6 sells for

under $500 mail order and Moose Peterson claims it is sharp and

competes in focusing speed and accuracy with the Canon 400mm f/5.6

USM lens, when he uses it on his F5. He uses it to photograph flying

birds an especially hard subject to shoot.

From reading Moose's articles i do not believe thats what he was

saying. He said it was faster than the sigma, and that was before the

sigma hsm came out. Secondly anyone that tells you a non USM or AFS

lens is on par in focusing speed with a USM or AFS lens is most likely

smoking crack and should be given adequate therapy.

<p>

This is not to say the tokina or sigma is crap. Just dont plan on af

speed like the canon usm.